Lincoln's 1860 Election and Transcontinental Railroad by 1869 and Kennedy's 1960 Election and 1969 Moon Landing as Catalysts for Next Economy

On any given day, the transition from the industrial to information economy was negligible but like capitalism’s dynamic of compound interest, the transition over a century was huge. 

In the century between when the two presidents Johnson were sworn in after an assassination (Andrew Johnson in April of 1865 and Lyndon Johnson in November of 1963), the source of progress had shifted from industrial to intellectual capital.

It was Lincoln’s vision and signature that launched the project to build the transcontinental railroad. It was Kennedy’s vision and signature that launched the project to land on the moon. Neither lived to see their bold vision realized.

Lincoln won the presidency in 1860 and by May of 1869, the transcontinental railroad was completed. Kennedy won in 1960 and by July of 1969, NASA had landed men on the moon.  Lincoln’s railroad was catalyst for a period of huge gains in industrialization and invention, a huge boon to the emergence of the industrial economy. Kennedy’s space program was catalyst for a period of huge gains in information technology and invention, a huge boon to the emergence of the information economy. Policies more broadly, but these projects specifically, were part of the foundation for advancing the next economy, great examples of new politics for the next economy.

Curiously, the surface of the moon is oddly similar to swaths of America's Midwest

The shift from the industrial economy Lincoln helped to advance and the information economy that Kennedy helped to advance was characterized by so many things but this is one of the simplest: the shift from an industrial economy dependent on child labor to an information economy dependent on adult education.